Repeat Visitors vs New Visitors – Which is Worth More to Your AdSense Earnings?

A few days back I shared a little analysis of my AdSense earnings as it related to sources of traffic and looked at how – for me – traffic from newsletters was actually the most valuable traffic that I get on my photography site.

This dispelled the myth that loyal readers to your site become blind to ads and are not likely to click them – but I wanted to dig down a little deeper to look at the difference between first time visitors and repeat visitors and how they interact with ads. Here’s what I found when I looked at the last 3 months.

On my photography site it is the case the new visitors click ads and earn more per 1000 visitors than repeat visitors.

In addition to those coming from newsletters repeat visitors on my site would include RSS readers, visitors from social media (facebook and Twitter).

This makes sense – those there for the first time are probably clicking around more, exploring and looking for things to click on. They’re also seeing ad units for the first time and are likely to click them.

However repeat visitors are not far behind. I’m not allowed to share the exact figures but the difference in CTR was tiny and the eCPM difference while noticeable was not huge. Repeat readers are still valuable – particularly as many of them are coming back on a daily basis so on a per visit basis they’re not earning as much but over a year they’re earning considerably more than a one time visitor.

update: I should say that one of the reasons that I suspect AdSense is better at converting for repeat visitors these days is that they not only rely upon CPC (cost per click) ads but also use CPM (cost per impression) ads which means that people no longer need to click ads for you to earn anything.

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Thanks Darren for that piece of advice. I would have never given it some serious thought until you brought it up. From a business perspective this gives me motivation to continue to bring value to both new and existing readers.

Keep up the great articles I love reading them during lunch or during my free time.

I personally think that regular visitors are probably going to click on ads much more often based on the fact that they’re coming back and after building a relationship with you and your blog, they trust what you advertise. It all comes back to trust and time.

New visitors want to get to know you and want to just find info fast and if they keep being directed to your site with what they’re looking for, then things may fall into place.

New visitors are your future repeat visitors.(don’t mean to state the obvious).
What interests me is the value perceived over say a 12 month period. I wonder how many people come back as they have spotted an advert and now want to click it.
I know I have done this.
Which as i know now was stupid because they get rotated.

Your faith in the new / repeat classification is interesting. But I’m not convinced.

My ISP uses dynamic IP addressing, so I’ll appear at a new visitor every day (or sometimes more often). OTOH, a person using a shared computer (at a library, university, etc) may appear to be a repeat visitor when they’re really new-to-your-site. Etc.

Also, the idea that “– those there for the first time are … seeing ad units for the first time and are likely to click them” – yeah right! AdSense ads appear on lots of sites, and the chance that someone hasn’t seen ‘em before is pretty remote.

Hi Darren,
I offer you my gratitude as well for taking the time to do this research.

Here are my thoughts:

Perhaps, new visitors are clicking around a lot as you said but perhaps also repeat visitors click around quite a bit too because they have read good stuff you have written on DPS many times and now they want to take action to get a tool to help them apply what they have learned.

I’m so glad Darren did this research. I’ve always struggled with trying to decide if it is better to keep people on-site and convert them to “long term members” (for example getting them to join my community forum) or to get them in, monetize them, and get them out… especially considering that AdSense opens in the same window and the person may not come back.

Based on Darren’s data it looks like I’m in a good spot to keep people on site and returning because they will eventually click ads. Cool!

Great article. I’ve often wondered which set of visitors is more important when it comes to conversions, but I’m glad to know that both hold value, as I appreciate both equally when it comes to my blog.

Good research by the way. New visitor is your future visitor. Both are valuable. I personally think that new visitors worth more to adsense earning because repeat visitors already know where adsense are located and become blind to ads.

Maybe its depend on niche and the way blogger interact with visitors/readers.

I just put up an ad from clickbank instead of adsense, it’s called the Auto-Blog System and it’s one of the most popular on the clickbank site. But I’m wondering…does anyone actually buy in to these infomercial type programs?

The value is relative, it is a commercial corporate page encouraging people to call, or it is informative… It depends of the goal! In our case, we need people to call and buy offline. They have no reason to come back. And also is based in new clients!!! Hence, new visitors is vital.

I think regardless of whether your customers are old or new, it definitely pays to advertise. But since we’re on the topic of which particular customer should your ads cater to, I’d say on the onset, the new customers. why? because the old ones are already aware of your product or service.

Hi
Awesome points you shared.I completely agree with you.New visitors gives more money to google adsense but still repeat visitors are more valuable.And this can only be done if they find what they are looking for and forcing them to come back again to your blog or website.

Perhaps to please the returning visitors and prevent the “turning a blind eye” thing might be to change up those ads and their locations every week, month, or few months depending on how much time you have.
I also think that as someone else said it depends on your “niche”.
Great food for thought here.

Nice Analysis. yea its rite new visitor have more tendency for clicking but I think its not only about visitors (newer or older) its about what sort of ads in front of him and what sort of information he is looking for..

I’m trying to follow everything you say, but I think I keep missing some of the basics.

I’m confused. Is this data from your Digital Photography School website vs. Twi-tips and you are just reporting in on your ProBlogger blog? Are newsletters and blogs different?
I don’t know what CTR and eCPM are.

Very interesting post. I always assumed as well that returning visitors are completely immune to advertisement. If anything else, I see how important it is to check your reports when it comes to this sort of thing. It’s something that I’m still learning.

Repeat visitors have recognized you and your business as a thought leader and therefore are more trusting of the inforamtion you provide. These users have developed a relationship with you where new visitors are simply curious. I’d be interested on purchasing statistics in relation to click-through’s.

Another reason is that AdSense show different ads with each page load which means a new offer is available for each visit, regardless of whether it’s their first time on the site or they’re coming back from an RSS reader.

I do agree with your analysis. New visitors to your site is looking something and more likely to click on the ads. They may be new to your site but if they do like your site, even though they may be in there accidentally, they will be your regular visitor.

Fantastic post. I have been testing returning visitors with my Adsense for about 4 months and have found pretty much the same resultsas you. On some of my WordPress sites were I can use a plugin to not show Adsense to returning visitors, my income dropped dramatically.

It is enlightening to see that returning visitors are still worth showing Adsense to. I feel much better now:)

I am little bit confused after reading this analytical comparison. New visitors can be future repeat visitors and repeat visitors are somewhat loyal visitors that have developed a relation with your blog and they click on ads more what i think.

Nice post. I think that although the graph shows that new visitors earn you more than repeated visitors, repeated visitors that come from the readership that you build from your blog are highly valuable.

create a blog and get started with writing articles interesting and helpful is not easy. require patience and sustained effort, do it with pleasure is the way to prevent boredom. then you are ready to become a successful blogger, start making money,thanks for sharing

CTR is “click through rate”, and eCPM is the estimated amount you earn from 1000 page impressions. You can find out more about the definitions from Google’s Adsense help section.

As I understand it, Darren is comparing different visitors on one site – his photography site. The “new” visitors have never been to the photography site before. The “returning” visitors have been before – some of them return to the site from a link in his email newsletter, some from his RSS feed, some from Facebook or Twitter.

I have always wondered why you don’t use adsense on Problogger since you do so well with it on your photo blog?

Is it because of the totally different demographic of the users on each blog?

Does adsense turn these people off?

I know that there is can be a huge aversion to some people for using advertising on their sites, worrying that they will turn away readership, but your free content is so good I have a hard time seeing how it would not convert on Problogger as well.

…maybe it would cheapen it. I’m sure you have tried in the past. Just wondering what your experience was on this as I am debating doing it on my own site. I didn’t realize that they had a CPE model now. That could be the better way to go for a professional site… hmmm.

Depends on the niche of the blog, is it normal for a photography blog get almost same earning from new and returning visitor because photographers always looking for something new. Blog about blogging wouldn’t get that result.